From a recent email to a PCV:
Quitting the Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is not an international development agency, and no ethical recruiter will tell you that it is. It’s a learning experience for you, and the single best public diplomacy effort the United States has. Peace Corps service is genuine service to your home country, especially in redacted country where rumors run wild, but I agree that you’re not doing a whole lot for the community you live in. If you are okay with that, it’s an amazing opportunity to learn another culture and another way of life. Being a PCV does change your view of the world, and of poverty, forever, but it’s not going to change redacted country.
Doing Peace Corps service will give you knowledge and skills to help you do anti-poverty work in the future. It’s a valuable education for the kind of work you want to do, even if it is not the work itself. It’s your call if you want that.